Austrian Law and Economics: The Definitive Collection

Edward Elgar has announced the publication of a two-volume collection of Austrian law and economics articles. The marks the first definitive collection of articles in this field. It is a book for your university or public library. Please recommend it!

THE BIG BOOK

Edited by Mario J. Rizzo, Department of Economics, New York University, US

Description
The use of economics to study law was pioneered by the Austrian School of Economics. The nineteenth century founders of the school believed that economics could contribute to understanding the spontaneous development of common law as well as the nature of legal rights. For this insightful two-volume collection Mario Rizzo has selected key papers from today’s vibrant Austrian School, focusing on the study of property, market-chosen law, slippery-slope analysis, entrepreneurship, institutions, decentralized social knowledge, and the evolution of legal institutions.
These volumes represent the cutting-edge Austrian contributions to economics and will be an essential reference source for both students and researchers.

The use of economics to study law was pioneered by the Austrian School of Economics. The nineteenth century founders of the school believed that economics could contribute to understanding the spontaneous development of common law as well as the nature of legal rights. For this insightful two-volume collection Mario Rizzo has selected key papers from today’s vibrant Austrian School, focusing on the study of property, market-chosen law, slippery-slope analysis, entrepreneurship, institutions, decentralized social knowledge, and the evolution of legal institutions.
These volumes represent the cutting-edge Austrian contributions to economics and will be an essential reference source for both students and researchers.

PART I GENERAL SURVEYS OF AUSTRIAN LAW AND ECONOMICS
1. Gregory Scott Crespi (1998), ‘Exploring the Complicationist Gambit: An Austrian Approach to the Economic Analysis of Law’
2. Linda A. Schwartzstein (1994), ‘An Austrian Economic View of Legal Process’
3. Christopher T. Wonnell (1986), ‘Contract Law and the Austrian School of Economics’

Post navigation

17 thoughts on “Austrian Law and Economics: The Definitive Collection”

Some good ideas if you cannot afford the book. ‎1. Get a library to buy it. 2. Those who contributed to the volume will get a gratis copy. Borrow from them 3. The articles have already been published elsewhere. Google them. 4. My Intro is on my bepress site.

“Man, Economy and State” is being subsidized by Mises Institute donors. Its original, unsubsidized version which I purchased in the late 1960s cost the equivalent of about $300 today. That would amount to 30 cents per page.

Wow. That just might be the most expensive book I’ve ever seen. I hate to be a downer, but I’m afraid it will languish largely unread in university libraries.

““Man, Economy and State” is being subsidized by Mises Institute donors.”

Actually, that’s not true.

And when MES was originally published, it was published by a traditional publisher. Probably an academic publisher, is that so? In which case, it’s price was probably marked up much higher than need be and marketed toward institutions. Academic publishing is a racket.

I’m an obsessive bibliophile. I buy and read books like it’s going out of style. And like tons of other Austrian econ books, this one will have to wait on my books-to-buy list for a looong time until the price comes down. In fact, it’s already been there for a while. I’d seriously love to have it though.

To an extent, Mario is correct. The Mises bookstore is subsidized by donations. It was never created to bring in large profits. However, it’s also been true that (as far as I know) the store’s numbers have been in the black. But, if the Mises Institute had to run on bookstore profits it would go out of business — so, in the broader sense, yes the bookstore is subsidized by donations.

But, we don’t live in the 1960s anymore. Book publishing prices have gone down. I can take all those articles and use some online program to make myself the same book, without the new introduction or what have you, for no more than a seventh of the price.

The problem is — and this isn’t meant as a subtle insult or anything like that — that these kind of books aren’t in demand. Edgar banks on the hope that their books will be purchased at those prices by tax subsidized universities. If demand is relatively inelastic then it’s difficult to bring down the price. And, if they make more money by selling it at $700 to y people than at $50 to x people, even if x is something a little bit higher than y (because y is subsidized by the state), then they’re probably going to maintain the higher price.

So yes, academic publishing is a racket.

Brad, I wouldn’t keep your hopes up. Edgar’s collection on Mises and Hayek are still $700+ and I think it’s been about ten years, although I don’t know the exact publishing date.

Jonathan, you’re probably right, but 95 percent of my book collection is used and a lot of times you’ll find people and businesses off-loading their books for bargain prices. That’s what I’m holding out for.

I agree that absent copyright and tax subsidized libraries, the market for this would be smaller and the demand and thus price probably somewhat lower, but in my defense most of these are purchased by law firms who actually use them–law firms that pay hundreds of bucks of an hour of Lexis or Westlaw research without blinking an eye.

But I agree that I wish the price of this new book were more reasonable and affordable for normal mortals. Rizzo’s workaround solutions are very impracticable for most people, I fear.

But then these people are no worse off than before and some who have access to university libraries, for example, are better off. I think the relevant comparison, as I said above, is between a book like this existing at a high price and it not existing (or “existing” at an infinite price).

Mario, you are right, in a narrow sense–better for the book to exist than not, even at that rarified price. But these are all unpaid academic articles. There is presumably no need to pay much, if at all, to authors etc. to get reprint permission. I would think the reason to do this is to get the message out. Maybe you think there is more leverage from having it libraries, though for the life of me I cannot see why. If it were widely available (including free online) then thousands more normal people could access it AND any academics you seek to influence could read it online instead of traipsing down to the library. Anyway this is just perplexing to those of us taking a differnet approach, but to each his own. Good luck with it my brother.

[…] An incredibly expensive but groundbreaking collection of papers on Austrian Law & Economics. You should convince your school’s library to buy this. If you can’t, at least make a note of what papers Rizzo chooses for reference. […]

I think that there is a good reason to have this collection. There are still universities, probably not in the US, that do not have full electronic access to the journals where the papers were published. At the same time, they are willing to buy these printed collections. Published collections like this one are then sometimes the only way how the students can get access to some important papers. At least that is my own personal experience from the time when I was studying at non-US universities.

[…] Austrian influence). Mario selected some of Stringham’s work on law and economics to be part of a two-volume series on the topic – what is likely to be the definitive collection for years to come. At AIER, we have […]